motivation

I have been wanting to complete the A+ since the last 8 months of 2010 and have been trying since the start of the 2011 new year without success.

I am not sure if i just lack motivation or am just lazy but how do you guys keep on top of it or make it happen?
I myself am 32 and have been messing with computers since I was 8. I do know alot about them except when I am reading my Mike Meyes all in one and his passport book, I feel like I need to know everything and if I do not I am doomed or cannot go on to the next chapter.

At first, I thought the Mike Meyers all in one book broke things down great but sometimes i felt the chapters were too long and once done there were only 10 chapter questions no matter the size of the chapter. I started to read the Mike Meyers passport book but then saw a big difference from the all in one. The passport book was not that in depth as the all in one so then i thought well I want to know the depth of it all not just skim it. Yet I feel i do not retain the information.... Uggghh just fustrated...

I want to get a better job but yet going to school with a full time job with wife and kids does not work I have tried it and found out the school was a paper mill so i figured i will get my certs on my own and then once i have the job I can get a degree from the company. Yet I cannot even get the first basice cert there is A+. I know i could do the network and security + certs cause they just focus on just what it is not like the A+ which touches on a bunch of different stuff. Any help?

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gunmetalgr3g

Use the Pearson CompTIA A+ 5th edition exam cram book, I was feeling the same way with Mike Meyers so I looked for other stuff since I already know a lot about computers I just want a refresh on topics and learn new items, I read the book took me about a week its 500 some odd pages with graphics and blank pages so its possible 430+, its great and it was straight to the point

tonyg1

Thank you... I will check that book out today on my lunch. Still wish i knew how to get motivated, maybe its depression...

All i know for sure is that when i was at school the motivation was there because one i was paying for it and two the teachers keep you in it. In my case though self study just seems to easy to say "you know what tonight i do not feel like reading, I will do it tomorrow" then next thing you know its a week then a month.

poszeone

well, i would say don not study at home . if i am at home i don't get anything done , i get side tracked alot. so, i set time aside and go to a nice quiet place and study. get some coffice and go at it. yes the exam cram and testout and some other thing i use also.

Armor149

I too went down the exact same road as you, except I did it at 34. I also went to school at night on a part-time basis. It took me over a year before I took the A+.

The first thing to understand is that you will not know everything, especially when you are first starting out. I kept going back over stuff time and time again because I didn't feel as if I knew the material inside and out.

Next, be happy if you get 30 mins of study time in a day. I have found that it takes me 2 to 3 times longer than what I plan when it comes to getting ready for a cert. It's just life and it gets in the way.

Book your exam date! There is nothing like having an exam date booked to help get you out of a rut and into the swing of things.

There is something to be said about having multiple sources of study material. I used the Meyers All-In-One first and was somewhat overwhelmed by it. It currently is used as my monitor stand. I found that the Sybex book got down to what I needed to know. I also used the Exam Cram Practice Questions Amazon.com: CompTIA A+ 220-701 and 220-702 Practice Questions Exam Cram (4th Edition) (9780789747914): Patrick Regan: Books for test prep. I used this a couple weeks up to my test date as a way of knowing what areas I was weak.

Something I found useful when studying for CompTIA certs was to download the objectives from the CompTIA website and use them in Word to make an outline for my study notes and then fill in the relevant information I needed.

Don't stress yourself too much, the first one is always the hardest.

CodeBlox

Started studying for A+ about a year ago and stopped. Picked it back up starting from scratch and finished study in about 2 months. It's all about how much you want this kind of thing.

Xantcha

One method for motivation is to book the exam because you then have a deadline to meet, even if it's 4 months away.

Another thing is, how old are your kids? Old enough to read? If so, start sitting down with the family every night for 15 minutes to read together. You'll find that you get more reading done this way. It will eventually turn into half an hour (or longer) as the kids get into it too and start reading longer. (you get study and family time done at the same time

)

Another way is to reward yourself. Sit down and do 30-60 minutes study every night. Then give yourself the same amount of gaming time too but only after the study.

tonyg1

Wow, thank you everyone for your help on this. I think you guys are right to book the exam first that will put fire under my behind lol. Also, i will try to get my kids into this as well there 5 and 9 so that should be fun lol.

I built them each there own pc from my old parts and they were into it for about a week and then they went back to the wii. Now there on my ps3 but there seeing now that there getting in the way of my game time and started to go back to there computers.

I started to read again yesterday on my lunch and surprisingly i learned the pci and pcie slotst. it has stuck with me since i read it. One thing that is helping me with retaining this info is taking fish oil pills... they have that omeg3 in it that helps the brain, when i take them i feel more sharper and think clearer and have better energy i do not fall asleep while reading long chapters like i do when not taking the fish oil pills.. just a thought you guys might want to look into.

hackman2007

tonyg1 wrote: »

I have been wanting to complete the A+ since the last 8 months of 2010 and have been trying since the start of the 2011 new year without success.

I am not sure if i just lack motivation or am just lazy but how do you guys keep on top of it or make it happen?
I myself am 32 and have been messing with computers since I was 8. I do know alot about them except when I am reading my Mike Meyes all in one and his passport book, I feel like I need to know everything and if I do not I am doomed or cannot go on to the next chapter.

At first, I thought the Mike Meyers all in one book broke things down great but sometimes i felt the chapters were too long and once done there were only 10 chapter questions no matter the size of the chapter. I started to read the Mike Meyers passport book but then saw a big difference from the all in one. The passport book was not that in depth as the all in one so then i thought well I want to know the depth of it all not just skim it. Yet I feel i do not retain the information.... Uggghh just fustrated...

I want to get a better job but yet going to school with a full time job with wife and kids does not work I have tried it and found out the school was a paper mill so i figured i will get my certs on my own and then once i have the job I can get a degree from the company. Yet I cannot even get the first basice cert there is A+. I know i could do the network and security + certs cause they just focus on just what it is not like the A+ which touches on a bunch of different stuff. Any help?

I use a different motivation tactic. When I'm sure I want to get the certification, I buy the voucher. I don't book the exam until I'm ready, but knowing that the voucher expires in less than one year makes me get prepared.

By the way, I'm not sure about Network+ because I'm still in the process of obtaining that one, but in Security+ you still need to know the basics. You need to know how to troubleshoot a computer, a network and many other things. But you are right though, it is simpler in that the coverage isn't as wide.

djfunz

I think I would follow this advice as well. Just go out and buy the voucher if you can and set a date to take it. I've set my date to 1 month from now and would like to have the cert by then. Stay at it and realize that you're not alone.

CodeBlox

I didn't think doing that would be a good idea. Say something came up and you never had time to study? I'd prefer to just come up with a routine.

degoede

I can't imagine more motivation then attempting to provide a better life for your family. So odds are your probably just lazy, but thats ok so am I...

I forget the name of the book i used but I read the book and as I read it I took notes. Taking notes helped me a ton. At the end of each chapter in my book there was 20 questions. I would put a Question mark beside any answer i wasn't sure of and then go back through my notes and make sure i understood that topic. Guessing at questions doesn't help you learn, so any question you do not know but get correct is the same as an incorrect question for study purposes.

I also used Prof. Messer videos (free online and pretty good)

I set a schedule, with my ol' lady. I put 1 hour a day in which I do not have the TV in front of me, or video games. Just studying. 4 weeks and I was confident enough to book my exam, I booked it 3 weeks away and as it got close I found myself getting a bit nervous and spent more then my 1 hour a day (5 hours a week).

I think its important to schedule with your wife

1) she probably wants you to do it
2) you can sort out when is easy with kids etc.

My schedule was basically work leave at 7:30 home at 5. Help with dinner, after dinner study for an hour, was usually done studying around 8pm. (i took weekends off) In my opinion you don't really need to concern yourself too much with hardware specifics but that could have just been as a result of the questions i got

gbuc40

How's the studying going Tony? Staying motivated?

AintRite

If you are finding studying from a book boring as I do go then maybe checkout LabSim or CBT Nuggets. LabSim is interactive along with watching videos and CBT Nuggets is just videos only.